Please note also that Piper's Son are one of the many great bands featured on the new CD compilation: "Combat Cancer" Other acts who have covered a Clash song to help raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust include: Nick Welsh, The Spammed, Mick Jones, Big Jim Patterson, Lynval Golding, The Talks, and Dreadzone!

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Jeremy Corbyn has been leader of The Labour Party for 10 weeks. Yesterday it was revealed that between 18 and 20 November 2015 ComRes interviewed 2,067 people of Great Britain online and of those that were Labour voters - 20% wanted MPs to replace Corbyn, 56% were happy with him as leader and the rest hadn't made up their minds yet. Depressingly the online surveys findings were that national support for the Conservatives is at a worrying 42 per cent. U.Kips popularity had gone up 2 % whilst Labour had gone down by 2% Only 27 per cent of those ComRes e-mailed said that if there was an election tomorrow that they would vote Labour - obviously this is not cool for cats.

There have been other polls that have been slightly better news - Between the 14th and 17th of Nov 1021 people were interviewed for a Ipsos-MORI poll of voting intentions in which J.C. was the most popular UK political leader (9 points above his nearest rival. In that same poll Labour – as a party – is trailing the Tories by just seven per cent.

Today it was announced in The Times that 66% of Labour members believe Jeremy Corbyn is doing well.
"Labour party members back Jeremy Corbyn by a two-thirds margin, The Times can reveal, making it all but impossible for the leader’s detractors to mount a successful putsch. The hard-left party leader was elected in September with 59 per cent of the vote. Now 66 per cent of Labour members believe that he is doing “well”, according to an exclusive poll."

Above are the positive bits from a You Gov poll. Once again it's clear that a more people trust Jeremy Corbyn and think he's a decent man that trust David Cameron.
Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary issued a statement today saying he was fully behind Mr Corbyn’s leadership. “Jeremy has my full support as he develops his alternative programme to that of this disastrous government," he said. "He has opened up debate and democracy across the Labour party and that can only be a positive move for the future...It is exactly his brand of conviction politics and principled opposition that has won him so many supporters and his leadership is stronger for it.” Meanwhile Ed Milliband also recently praised Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and claimed he is fit to be the next prime minister. He said on The Today Programme that "Of course" Mr Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell could run the country in 2020. But the former party leader refused to say if Labour would win the next election in his first major interview since he quit in May saying 'after the general election, predictions aren't my thing.' Well, predicting the 2020 result isn't my thing either but I hope and pray Labour get elected. Talking of praying...

"The Third Way" is a monthly Magazine dedicated to Christian thinking on culture, society, economics and politics.
Here are some highlights from an interview Corbyn did with Huw Spanner that The Third Way published in June 2015.
Huw: Even the Daily Mirror describes you as 'hard left', which for me conjures up an image of an intractable ideologue. How would you characterise yourself?
Jeremy: "I come from a socialist tradition. I believe in a society where everyone is valued and cared for and included, and if that makes me 'left-wing', so be it. On economic and peace issues, obviously I am on the left of the Lab­our Party; but I don't apologise for that."
On your website, there's a picture of you sporting a Lenin cap. Is that making a statement? Well, you call it a 'Lenin cap'. How about it's just a cap?
"But it's associated with Lenin, isn't it? Are beards associated with Karl Marx? It's a cap. I like wearing it. There's a chap on Stroud Green Road who sells them for £9."
When did you first join the Labour Party?
"When I was 16. I first campaigned in the 1964 [general] election with my mum and my dad, and I joined the Labour Party afterwards. I was very active in the Young Socialists, and also in the Campaign for Nuclear Dis­arm­ament and other peace organisations. If there was any one event that shaped and informed my views, it was the Vietnam War; but it was also issues of in­equal­ity and poverty around the world. I did a lot of stuff with War on Want as a kid. My parents' politics had been formed by the rise of Fascism in the 1930s, by their support for the Spanish Republic - that was, indeed, how they met. They were members of the Labour Party and CND all their lives."
You were one of the founders of the Stop the War Coalition in 2001. Are you actually a pacifist?
"I would always try to bring about a peaceful solution to any conflict, and so I opposed the Gulf War in 1991 and, obviously, [the invasions of] Afghanistan and Iraq. To say I was a pacifist would be very absolutist…"
If you had been of your parents' generation, would you have applauded the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War?
"My dad wanted to join the International Brigade, but his health wouldn't allow it. Would I have supported it? You can't translate yourself into a different period; but had the rest of the world properly recognised and supported the Republican government in Spain, would the Second World War have happened? We'll never know. I do have respect for those people that were conscientious objectors in the war. Does that make me a pacifist? I can't really answer that. I'm not sure."
In your twenties, you worked for a succession of trades unions…
"I worked initially for the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, based in [the East End of London]. My job was essentially chasing down companies that had officially gone into liquidation owing wages and National Insurance on behalf of their employees and then reopened under a similar name in order to carry on trading. I also examined company accounts, to find out what the directors were doing, and attended negotiations with the wages council. I met Bernard Weatherill there, who later became a Speaker of the House of Commons. He was actually very nice to me."
Wasn't he a Tory?
"Absolutely! He was a pretty high Tory, but he was a gent."
I thought I'd read that you said you couldn't be friends with anyone who was not on the left…
"I would never have said that. I can't remember ever saying that. Somebody asked me if I'd have a relationship with somebody who was not on the left - now, that's different. But any friend, you're not going to agree on everything. It would be quite difficult to have any de­gree of friendship with somebody who holds appalling views - racist, homophobic or something like that - but with people who hold politically different views, yeah, of course. Surely, we need to have a diversity of opinion around us? It's good for us, is it not?"
Are you fundamentally optimistic?
"Yes, absolutely."
What is that optimism grounded in?
"In the fundamental good in people, and [a belief] that you can create a society where people do feel valued, do feel involved and can make a contribution. What a waste there is in poverty! What a waste there is in illiteracy! What a waste there is in unemployment!"
You advocated talking to Sinn Féin long before it emerged that the Government was actually doing so. You admired Nelson Mandela when much of the media was still saying he should have been hanged. You campaigned for justice for the Palestinians long before that became respectable. You opposed the 'war on terror' long before many other MPs saw the dangers. Do you ever get credit for being ahead of the political curve?
"No - but I don't mind. It's not im­portant. The cause is what's important."
Looking back, are there major positions you've taken that you think have proved wrong?
"Proved wrong…? I don't think so. [On the subject of Mandela,] there was one of those amazing days, when he came to Westminster, shortly after he'd been released, be­fore he became president. Quite a few MPs turned up at the meeting and listened to him for a bit and then went away because they'd got other things to do. Mandela's aide said: 'Nelson, you can finish now. The meeting's virtually over.' He said: 'I will stay as long as there are questions people want to discuss with me.' It ended up with Tony Benn, Nelson Mandela and me sitting round a table having a chat - just the three of us."

Monday, 16 November 2015

Last year studio 1:1 exhibited 48 drawings that one of The Rebel Magazine's fave artists Marcus Cope had made during a month in Cyprus. Now Cope has made some excellent paintings and studio1.1 are showing them!

The Rebel: Are you happy?
Marcus Cope: "I am as it happens. I'm excited to be alive and enjoying seeing things, I would just like to have a little more time to do everything that I want to be able to do and also have time to relax a little."

What are you reading at the moment?
"I'm reading 'Keeping an Eye Open', essays on Art by Julian Barnes. I recommend it highly. It's doing the job of getting my head out of the Guston fog that I have been in since the show at Timothy Taylor earlier in the year. I followed that show up with reading several books on Guston, and in particular reading and rereading Guston's lecture printed in the catalogue for the 2004 Timothy Taylor show of Guston. Reading is one of those things for which I wish I had more time."

What advice do you have for young people?
"Oh I don't really. What's the context? I like young people, full of life, open and questioning. Much more fun to be around. I guess the advice is to make your own way, particularly in the art world, and if you think you want something, make sure you know why and be sure about it. Don't be a sheep!"

What are your three greatest pleasures?
"Watching or making my daughter laugh has to be top of the list. Watching her grow and develop, it really is something special. There are too many other pleasures in life to be able to rank them so I think we'll leave it at that."

If you could own any one piece of art and see it in your house everyday what would you pick?
"I very much like The Sick Child by Gabriel Metsu. I also like his paintings A Man Writing a Letter and A Woman Reading a Letter. Probably one of those, or one of Pieter De Hooch's interiors, the ones with the shock of red, there is one with a bright red chair, I don't recall the name but I like that one a lot."

What music have you been listening to most this year?
"I got into the Tune Yards album Nikki Nack at the start of the year, I loved that. I've also been listening a lot to the Avalanches Since I left You. I have listened to that record so much over the past ten years, I just don't ever tire of it, and I think I play it more and more as the years go on."

What was the last great exhibition you saw?
"I think I've just alluded to it. Guston. Great exhibitions don't come along very often, and Guston, - many painters favourite - having seen so many in the past, including shows at Timothy Taylor and the retrospective at the Royal Academy a decade or so ago, I wondered if I should bother. It's just mesmerizing how he got it right though and I'm very gad I did see it. You could see in the show that some of the paintings like Head With Bottle where he got it right straight away, had some slighly rubbish colouring-in style paint work, but that didn't matter because he'd got the image down and it worked. In other paintings things were a bit more vague, muddy brushed out bits, some almost ghostly half images, and re worked areas, interesting paint work coming to life and making the picture in a different way. And the boldness of all of it. Direct. Brilliant. There were a couple of pretty rubbish ones too, like the one with the stand of fruit and cherries but that only goes to show the reality of being a painter I think, painting everyday...they can't all be great."

What's next for Marcus?
"Marcus has a very busy time ahead as it's the build up to the next Marmite Prize which he runs. There is a lot happening behind the scenes with that, all getting ready for the launch for submissions. He's also got his next paintings germinating in his mind, having had a couple of weeks break from painting since putting the show up."

Is this exhibition at studio1.1 worth a look?
"You're asking the wrong person. Of course it is worth a look. For anyone familiar with the space it's changed a little, we've reconfigured the gallery a bit, put in a couple of extra walls, moved the steps and painted the floor black. The paintings are mostly painted in black and white so the darkness of the floor really brings those blacks out. The paintings are also sunk into the walls so the face of them is the same plane as the surface of the walls. I'm so excited about this show, and the paintings. Please do try and make it along!"

Monday, 9 November 2015

A student of Winchester School of Art From 1992 to 1995. And then from 1995 to 2000 Harry Pye was the editor and publisher of 20 issues of "Frank Magazine"

Post 2000 c.v
"Born To Run: The Story of The Frank Organisation" a 30 minute documentary by Gordon Beswick & Harry Pye is screened over four successive Sunday evenings at The Reliance Bar in Shoreditch. Each evening included a performance from Adrian R. Shaw.
"Frank 2000: London Talking" (publication launched at "Funny" an exhibition curated by Peter Harris at The Andrew Mummery Gallery.
"It May Be Rubbish But It's British Rubbish"

An exhibition in Glassbox, Paris in May. Featuring more than a dozen artists including Eilidh Crumlish, Christopher Owen, Bruce McLean, Hadrian Piggott, Johnny de Veras, and Adrian R. Shaw. A month later the show takes place at The Stark Gallery in South London and is previewed in The Guardian Guide.